Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-14T19:15:37.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reading a book in one or two languages? An eye movement study of cognate facilitation in L1 and L2 reading*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

USCHI COP Open the ORCID record for USCHI COP [Opens in a new window] ,
NICOLAS DIRIX ,
EVA VAN ASSCHE ,
DENIS DRIEGHE  and
WOUTER DUYCK
USCHI COP
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
NICOLAS DIRIX*
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
EVA VAN ASSCHE
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
DENIS DRIEGHE
Affiliation:
University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
WOUTER DUYCK
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
*
Address for correspondence: Nicolas Dirix, Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. nicolas.dirix@ugent.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined how noun reading by bilinguals is influenced by orthographic similarity with their translation equivalents in another language. Eye movements of Dutch–English bilinguals reading an entire novel in L1 and L2 were analyzed.

In L2, we found a facilitatory effect of orthographic overlap. Additional facilitation for identical cognates was found for later eye movement measures. This shows that the complex, semantic context of a novel does not eliminate cross-lingual activation in natural reading.

In L1 we detected non-identical cognate facilitation for first fixation durations of longer nouns. Identical cognate facilitation was found on total reading times for high frequent nouns. This study is the first to show cognate facilitation in L1 reading of narrative text. This shows that even when reading a novel in the mother tongue, lexical access is not restricted to the target language.

Keywords

eye trackingnatural readingcognate Facilitationcross-lingual Interactions
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , August 2017 , pp. 747 - 769
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research was supported by a grant from the FWO (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) and concerted research action BOF13/GOA/032 of Ghent University. We thank Dr. Søren Feodor Nielsen at Copenhagen Business School for the R-code for calculating the variance inflation factor (VIF).

References

Baayen, R. H., Davidson, D. J., & Bates, D. M. (2008). Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 390–412. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.12.005 Google Scholar
Baguley, T. (2012). Serious Stats: A guide to advanced statistics for the behavioral sciences. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Balling, L. W. (2013). Reading authentic texts: What counts as cognate? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16 (03), 637–653. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728911000733 Google Scholar
Barr, D. J., Levy, R., Scheepers, C., & Tily, H. J. (2013). Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. Journal of Memory and Language, 68 (3), 255–278. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2012.11.001 Google Scholar
Box, G. E. P., & Cox, D. R. (1964). An analysis of transformations. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 26 (2), 211–252.Google Scholar
Brysbaert, M., & New, B. (2009). Moving beyond Kučera and Francis: A critical evaluation of current word frequency norms and the introduction of a new and improved word frequency measure for American English. Behavior Research Methods, 41 (4), 977–990. doi:10.3758/brm.41.4.977 Google Scholar
Bultena, S., Dijkstra, T., & Van Hell, J. G. (2013). Cognate and word class ambiguity effects in noun and verb processing. Language and Cognitive Processes, 28 (9), 1350–1377. http://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.718353 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bultena, S., Dijkstra, T., & Van Hell, J. G. (2014). Cognate effects in sentence context depend on word class, L2 proficiency, and task. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67 (6), 1214–1241. http://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2013.853090 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cop, U., Dirix, N., Drieghe, D., & Duyck, W. (2015). Presenting GECO: An Eye-Tracking Corpus of Monolingual and Bilingual Sentence Reading. Submitted for Publication.Google Scholar
Cop, U., Keuleers, E., Drieghe, D., & Duyck, W. (2015). Frequency effects in monolingual and bilingual natural reading. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22, 1216–1234. http://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0819-2 Google Scholar
Cover, T. M., & Thomas, J. A. (1991). Elements of Information Theory. Wiley Series in Telecommunications. John Wiley & Sons: New York, NY, USA.Google Scholar
Cristoffanini, P., Kirsner, K., & Milech, D. (1986). Bilingual lexical representation: The status of Spanish–English cognates. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38, 367–393.Google Scholar
Davis, C., Sánchez-Casas, R., García-Albea, J. E., Guasch, M., Molero, M., & Ferré, P. (2010). Masked translation priming: Varying language experience and word type with Spanish–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13 (02), 137. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728909990393 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Groot, A. M. B. (2011). Language and cognition in bilinguals and multilinguals: An introduction. New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Depessemier, P., & Andries, C. (2009). GL&SCHR. Test voor Gevorderd Lezen & SCHRijven. Antwerp, Belgium: Garant.Google Scholar
Diependaele, K., Lemhöfer, K., & Brysbaert, M. (2013). The word frequency effect in first-and second-language word recognition: a lexical entrenchment account. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66 (5), 843–863.Google Scholar
Dijkstra, T., Grainger, J., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (1999). Recognition of Cognates and Interlingual Homographs: The Neglected Role of Phonology. Journal of Memory and Language, 41 (4), 496–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dijkstra, T., Miwa, K., Brummelhuis, B., Sappelli, M., & Baayen, H. (2010). How cross-language similarity and task demands affect cognate recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 62 (3), 284–301. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2009.12.003 Google Scholar
Dijkstra, T., Timmermans, M., & Schriefers, H. (2000). On being blinded by your other language: effects of task demands on inter-lingual homograph recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 42, 445–464.Google Scholar
Dijkstra, T., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (1998). The BIA model and bilingual word recognition. In Grainger, J. & Jacobs, A. (Eds.), Localist Connectionist Approaches to Human Cognition (pp. 189–225). New York: Mahwah.Google Scholar
Dijkstra, T., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (2002). The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: From identification to decision. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 5 (03). http://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728902003012 Google Scholar
Duyck, W. (2005). Translation and associative priming with cross-lingual pseudohomophones: Non-selective phonological activation in bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 31, 1340–1359. http://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.31.6.1340 Google Scholar
Duyck, W., Van Assche, E., Drieghe, D., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2007). Visual word recognition by bilinguals in a sentence context: Evidence for nonselective lexical access. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33 (4), 663–679. http://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.33.4.663 Google Scholar
Fox, J., & Weisberg, S. (2010). An R Companion to Applied Regression. SAGE.Google Scholar
Frost, R. (1998). Toward a strong phonological theory of visual word recognition: True issues and false trails. Psychological Bulletin, 123 (1), 71–99. http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.123.1.71 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giraudo, H., & Grainger, J. (2003). A supralexical model for French derivational morphology. In Assink, E. M. H. & Sandra, D. (Eds.), Reading Complex Words: Cross-Language Studies (pp. 139–157). Boston, MA: Springer US. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-3720-2_7 Google Scholar
Grainger, J., O'Regan, J. K., Jacobs, A., & Segui, J. (1989). On the role of competing word units in visual word recognition:The neigborhood frequency effect. Perception and Psychophysics, 45, 189–195.Google Scholar
Jared, D., & Kroll, J. F. (2001). Do bilinguals activate phonological representations in one or both of their languages when naming words? Journal of Memory and Language, 44, 2–31. http://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.2000.2747 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keuleers, E., Brysbaert, M., & New, B. (2010). SUBTLEX-NL: A new measure for Dutch word frequency based on film subtitles. Behavior Research Methods, 42 (3), 643–650. doi:10.3758/brm.42.3.643 Google Scholar
Kirsner, K., Lalor, E., & Hird, K. (1993). The Bilingual Lexicon: Exercise, meaning and morphology. In Schreuder, R. & Weltens, B. (Eds.), The bilingual lexicon (pp. 215–248). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Dijkstra, T., Janssens, N., & Schriefers, H. (1999). Cross-language lexical activity during production: Evidence from cued picture naming. In Vandierendonck, A., Brysbaert, M., & Van der Goten, K. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th congress of the European society for cognitive psychology (p. 92). Ghent: ESCOP/Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kush, D., Johns, C. L., & Van Dyke, J. A. (2015). Identifying the role of phonology in sentence-level reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 79–80, 18–29. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2014.11.001 Google Scholar
Lalor, E., & Kirsner, K. (2000). Cross-lingual transfer effects between English and Italian cognates and non-cognates. International Journal of Bilingualism, 4, 385–398.Google Scholar
Lemhöfer, K., & Broersma, M. (2012). Introducing LexTALE: A quick and valid Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English. Behavior Research Methods, 44 (2), 325–343. http://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-011-0146-0 Google Scholar
Lemhöfer, K., Dijkstra, T., Schriefers, H., Baayen, R. H., Grainger, J., & Zwitserlood, P. (2008). Native language influences on word recognition in a second language: A megastudy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34 (1), 12–31. http://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.34.1.12 Google Scholar
Libben, M. R., & Titone, D. A. (2009). Bilingual lexical access in context: Evidence from eye movements during reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35 (2), 381–390. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0014875 Google Scholar
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H. K. & Kaushanskaya, M. (2007). The Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing Language Profiles in Bilinguals and Multilinguals. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50 (4), 940–967. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2007/067) Google Scholar
McClelland, J., & Rumelhart, D. (1981). An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception. An account of basic findings. Psychological Review, 88, 375–407.Google Scholar
Midgley, K. J., Holcomb, P. J., & Grainger, J. (2011). Effects of Cognate Status on Word Comprehension in Second Language Learners: An ERP Investigation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23 (7), 1634–1647. doi:10.1162/jocn.2010.21463 Google Scholar
Peeters, D., Dijkstra, T., & Grainger, J. (2013). The representation and processing of identical cognates by late bilinguals: RT and ERP effects. Journal of Memory and Language, 68 (4), 315–332. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2012.12.003 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radach, R., Huestegge, L., & Reilly, R. (2008). The role of global top-down factors in local eye-movement control in reading. Psychological Research, 72 (6), 675–688. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-008-0173-3 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rayner, K. (1998). Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 124 (3), 372–422.Google Scholar
Sánchez-Casas, R., Davis, C., & García-Albea, J. E. (1992). Bilingual Lexical Processing -Exploring the cognate non-cognate distinction. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 4 (4), 293–310.Google Scholar
Sánchez-Casas, R., & García-Albea, J. E. (2005). The representation of cognate and noncognate words in bilingual memory. Can cognate status be characterized as a special kind of morphological relation? In Kroll, J. F. & de Groot, A. M. B. (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches. (pp. 226–250). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schepens, J., Dijkstra, T., & Grootjen, F. (2012). Distributions of cognates in Europe as based on Levenshtein distance. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15 (01), 157–166. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728910000623 Google Scholar
Schwartz, A. I., & Kroll, J. F. (2006). Bilingual lexical activation in sentence context. Journal of Memory and Language, 55 (2), 197–212. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2006.03.004 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snodgrass, J. G., & Mintzer, M. (1993). Neigborhood effects in isual word recognition: Facilitatory or inhibitory? Memory & Cognition, 21, 247–266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Titone, D., Libben, M., Mercier, J., Whitford, V., & Pivneva, I. (2011). Bilingual lexical access during L1 sentence reading: The effects of L2 knowledge, semantic constraint, and L1–L2 intermixing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37 (6), 1412–1431. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0024492 Google Scholar
Tokowicz, N., & Kroll, J. F. (2007). Number of meanings and concreteness: Consequences of ambiguity within and across languages. Language and Cognitive Processes, 22 (5), 727–779. http://doi.org/10.1080/01690960601057068 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tokowicz, N., Kroll, J. F., de Groot, A. M. B., & Van Hell, J. G. (2002). Number-of-translation norms for Dutch–English translation pairs: A new tool for examining language production. Behavior Research Methods Instruments & Computers, 34 (3), 435–451.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Assche, E., Drieghe, D., Duyck, W., Welvaert, M., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2011). The influence of semantic constraints on bilingual word recognition during sentence reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 64 (1), 88–107. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2010.08.006 Google Scholar
Van Assche, E., Duyck, W., & Brysbaert, M. (2013). Verb processing by bilinguals in sentence contexts. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 35 (02), 237–259. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263112000873 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Assche, E., Duyck, W., Hartsuiker, R. J., & Diependaele, K. (2009). Does bilingualism change native-language reading? Cognate effects in a sentence context. Psychological Science, 20 (8), 923–927.Google Scholar
Van Hell, J. G., & de Groot, A. M. B. (2008). Sentence context modulates visual word recognition and translation in bilinguals. Acta Psychologica, 128 (3), 431–451. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.03.010 Google Scholar
Van Hell, J. G., & Dijkstra, T. (2002). Foreign language knowledge can influence native language performance in exclusively native contexts. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9 (4), 780–789.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Heuven, W. J. B., Dijkstra, T., & Grainger, J. (1998). Orthographic Neighborhood Effects in Bilingual Word Recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 39, 458–483.Google Scholar
Whitford, V., & Titone, D. (2012). Second-language experience modulates first- and second-language word frequency effects: Evidence from eye movement measures of natural paragraph reading. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19 (1), 73–80. http://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0179-5 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed